What a shocking development. The US media loves a front runner. You could knock me over with a feather I’m so amazed at this startling development which, if Howie Kurtz is writing about it means that it must be the new, Broder approved, post-Iowa Beltway conventional wisdom. Just read the lead paragraph, and you’ll see what I’m talking about:
Barack Obama, now the media’s odds-on favorite to win the White House, is drawing effusive praise from the chattering classes.
Yep, you read that correctly. Obama is now the media’s odds-on favorite, not just for the nomination but to win the whole White House shebang! Imagine that just a short time ago Hillary’s nomination and subsequent presidency was considered inevitable. To blenderize a few metaphors, how quickly the rats have abandoned The Good Ship HRC and hopped aboard Obama’s Bandwagon of Hope. But that’s all a good pundit or “journalist” needs these days: either a poor short term memory, or the ability to deliberately ignore whatever you’ve written or said about the presidential race before when the Beltway herd shifts direction. And shifted they have:
“You’d have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by this. . . . This is a huge moment,” one commentator wrote.
An unreconstructed liberal? An African American hungering for a racial breakthrough? No, it was David Brooks, the conservative New York Times columnist, and he’s got plenty of company on the right.
The media overall are being swept up by a wave of Obamamania, in which normally hard-bitten journalists watch the orator in action and come away dazzled by his gifts. A New York Times piece Saturday compared the Illinois senator to JFK and Martin Luther King in the same paragraph. A Newsweek cover story out yesterday gushed that Obama, “tall and handsome and blessed with a weighty baritone, knows how to bring along a crowd while seeming to stay slightly above it.” The journalistic scrutiny usually visited on instant front-runners has been replaced by something akin to a standing ovation. […]
In the wake of Obama’s remarks about unity on the night of his Iowa caucus victory Thursday, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman and self-described conservative, called it “one of the most remarkable speeches I’ve ever seen.”
Bill Bennett, the conservative author, said on CNN that it was a “remarkable breakthrough” for “Barack Hussein Obama, a black man,” to win in a “rural, white farming state.” Rush Limbaugh added his voice on the radio, saying that Obama and Mike Huckabee, the Republican winner in Iowa, “had really uplifting, inspirational speeches.”
Now, those are some Grade A fluffers for you! David Brooks, NEWSWEEK magazine, The fricking New York Times, Bill Bennet and even Rush “Don’t kill all the liberals” Limbaugh all had something nice to say, and most went way, way overboard on the effusiveness scale. Suddenly, the man our Media Masters recently claimed was stumbling on the campaign trail now has both the integrity and gravitas of Martin Luther King combined with the glitz and glamor of John F. Kennedy! I guess elections do have consequences, or at least Iowa caucuses do.
No wonder Obama has been repeating the dual mantras “bi-partisanship” and “change” at every campaign rally, much like an old two bit carnie hypnotist. He knew that the media wanted two things. First, to discover that mythical beast known as the “centrist candidate” to which they could pin their blithering tales too. And the second? Any excuse to kick a Clinton to the curb, and in particular, this Clinton, whom they have never liked and don’t like now.
Still, I have to wonder, once Hillary is gone from the campaign trail, how quickly the media mavens sucking up to Obama will return to all those negative stories about him that they were fertilizing the airwaves with pushing before this sudden change of heart. Stories like the phony “Obama was educated in an Islamic Madrassa school”. Or the one that claimed he’s not really a Christian because he belongs to a Black Separatist church. Or the weird obsession with his middle and last names. Or the even more bizarre story that he’s not black enough. Or that a black man running for President in America simply isn’t electable.
Not very damn long is my prediction.
So enjoy your honeymoon with the chattering classes while it lasts Senator. Just remember that while they view you as a sexy beast now, and moon over every word that issues forth from from your elegant lips, I wouldn’t bet on them respecting you in the morning. Hell, I wouldn’t bet on them respecting you now.
I think they only like frontrunners so they can take them down. Think Dean.
Did they ever like Dean? Did they ever like Gore? Did they ever like Kerry? Did they ever love Dukakis? Did they ever love Carter?
Bottom line is that they are in love with Barack. At least, they are in love with the idea of Barack. He’s made himself a safe candidate. The press is not going to go after him the way they went after the others. Yes, people will go after him. Hard. But not the press. Maureen Dowd is not going to be writing snark about what a phony he is. This is different than the past.
I bet Dowd does write snark about him. Maybe not as a phony but perhaps as a naif, a good little boy lost in Sin City (i.e., Washington, DC). Count on it. That’s her schtick.
You could be right, but I see her as too afraid of the ‘racism’ label to do anything but the tamest criticism. If he does something stupid on the stump, sure, she’ll hit him over it. But there’s nothing wrong with that.
As an exercise, try to picture a hypothetical Down-hit piece on Obama. Then picture one for Edwards and Clinton. The latter two are so obvious. The former? Can’t even imagine what she would say.
Yeah, they loved Dean in August, maybe even in September and October. It made for a really interesting story. They didn’t like him when he went from interesting frontrunner to someone that might actually have to deal with.
You can’t possibly meaen that “you wonder”?
If the O man gets the nomination the shit will hit hit the fan like no one has ever seen before. When scum like bennett continues to use the O mans’ middle name, everyone knows that that fat piece of shit is race baiting. And do you think that the drug addict will suddenly not double or triple his racist innuendoes-Puleeeeze!
Nope, this will be remembered historically as the start of the destruction of the USA! We are in the crapper allready and they will conciously flush that crapper! I will go so far as to say that they are willing to egg on the nutcases until you know what is at least attempted!
No, not really.
This will be a very ugly campaign, but then that would have been the case regardless. It’s only the form of the ugliness that would change with a different candidate, not the certainty that there would be ugliness.
I guess that we differ, but only with respect to the intensity of the hatred and what that intensity can and may well foment. Racism is ugly Steven as you well know but there has never been the distinct possibility of a balcl man ascending to the presidency!
It wouldn’t take too much additional goading of the ultra right wing in this country for the line to be crossed!
I sincerely hope that you are right and that I am completely wrong. I really mean it! BUT…….
Great piece Steven. I can’t help believing that this insight, “a weighty baritone” like Obama’s would have helped Edwards considerably.
But as it stands, this is a race to take down Clinton as much as it is about electing another candidate. Edwards, Obama, it doesn’t matter. What matters is not letting the Clinton’s give us another four, eight years of Republican Lite, triangulation, appeasement of the right wing, in order to keep in office. Populism is today the antedote to government by the rich and corporations, and no candidate who defends corporate funding of elections is going to go far. Bill Clinton may be the best politician of our generation, according to Gingrich, but that estimate may only be the result of the fact that Gingrich fell, while Clinton was left standing after the Louwinski affair. Stealing Republican positions, whether that be corporatism or Neocon foreign policy, is not what the country needs right now, and Hillary needs to be taken down for that reason alone by anyone.
of Repub-lite statements, too.
Like I said, I can divorce my admiration of his ascendancy from the reality of who he is and what he really stands for.
He’s playing the game, that’s all. Politics change when you get the mantle and what politician foolishly carried out his promises. Bush? Look where it got him. He went to the bottom of the barrel as far as presidential honors is concerned.
It’s all about access. They can’t afford to piss Obama off — at least not at the beginning.
I expect most of the press eventually will fall in line behind the Obama bandwagon. They’re not stupid, despite evidence to the contrary.
Yet another sign that he’s probably going to win this thing.
and just grin in his face.
I say “Kennedy” rather than “Reagan” because some people are writing about Obama as if he’s the second coming of JFK. They say so! Same effusive, worshipful excitement about a young candidate.
I think one Kennedy was enough for this country, thank you. We know what happened in 1963.
BTW, Billo is taking heat for trying to barrel into Obama for an interview, shoving at one of the Obama aides, and causing the Secret Service to step in. Wasn’t it clear to the likes of Faux Noise that Obama didn’t want to have anything to do with them, and still doesn’t?
Well that seals it for me. If the right wing is in love with him now too it can only mean one thing. He’s the AntiChrist :oP
“must be the antichrist”…rotflmao
Still, I have to wonder, once Hillary is gone from the campaign trail, how quickly the media mavens sucking up to Obama will return to all those negative stories about him that they were fertilizing the airwaves with pushing before this sudden change of heart.
They’re kinda like hyenas going for the kill. Seems like many in Leftblogosphere are going headlong like lemmings in the general direction.
Because the 2008 campaign began early, it’s going to be a longer campaign season. Plenty of time for Obama to make some missteps and say something totally off-the-wall. Or people may simply lose interest, period. Or the media may start something.
I’m no Hillary lover myself, and I would like to see her gone, too; but if I were folks, I would be hoping she’d stay in for the long haul, if only for Obama’s or Edwards’ sakes.
I didn’t add any links because I was just having some fun, but…I did google up a few winger sites that would welcome Obama as the antichrist so’s to move this apocalypse stuff along a little. No joke. It would be a trip though if we could all take off naked through the clouds! ;o)
What better way to say “I am not a racist?”
Those big tent republicans are such nice people!
What scares me is the constant comparison to John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King.
And not FDR.
Is it not strange the only comparisons are with leaders who were assassinated?
The media pundits have issued invitations to an assasination before – most notably during the Clinton administration. “Fortunately the plane hit here. Had it hit up there it would have gone into the First Family’s residence.” NBC while pointing to the windows of the residence. And there are other MSM incidents from that same period in which the subtext was assassination.
Did I say that I don’t trust the MSM when they praise someone?
the uneasy feeling is there because we haven’t been this close to full power since RFK got shot down. We’re conditioned to believe it can’t happen.
Let the man rest, have mercy.
But we need another Bobby, bad. We need Dems with a length of spine and the courage to believe.
FDR is loathed more than LBJ among many in winger circles because “he started it,” even though he saved the country. Plus, he had Eleanor, who was more progressive than he was.
That being said, I quiver myself at the idea of equating Obama to dead presidents (not the dollar bills), martyrs and would-be presidents. That is some dangerous talk to those of us who were alive and conscious during the Sixties.
It’s a wonder the whole nation doesn’t have a severe case of whiplash–we’ve gone from Clintonian inevitability to Obamian cheerleading practically overnight.
I think it’s lots of things. I’ve read about people who leave Obama’s packed rallies crying. Well, damn–that would affect me, too. I do think for some, they are honestly astounded/pleased/excited/relieved by it. For others, the convincing win in Iowa made the idea that he could win more real.
Now certainly others like the odious hypocrite, Bill Bennett, are basically damning with faint praise. They are a lot of things, but stupid ain’t one: the see how he connects, know he’s smart, know he’s organized. They know they have to hit back and will have to use dogwhistle racial smears but have no clue as to how–for now.
(Heh…or payback for the “grandfatherly” Reagan. Karma, ya know.)
I think for many other pundits, they are absolutely in love with the thought of President Obama. Whether they want concrete proof that our county is better than what it has shown for 7 years, or that we’re not racist, or that we’ve made progress on race, the idea of him is as good as gold. And moves product.
The election of Obama also gives racists two outs – first, they can say that they’re not racists because they just voted for a (n-word), and second, it provides them with a STFU card to be handed to anyone thereafter who mentions racism. “There is no more racism in America – we just elected a Black president with 60% of the popular vote!”
Elections have consequences…and I’ll be more than happy to deal with the consequences of an Obama election, especially if (when!) his coattails drag in a filibuster-proof Senate.
Elections have consequences…and I’ll be more than happy to deal with the consequences of an Obama election, especially if (when!) his coattails drag in a filibuster-proof Senate.
Me too. The game always changes when dealing with racists, so you might as well deal with it. It’s not as if not electing Obama will make them go away.
I am so excited about Obama; he’s the first presidential candidate I’ve ever been so excited and passionate about. I sent a check, and I’m about to send more. And volunteer (after we elect Donna Edwards in my CD).
But he ain’t the revolution. I just want my government back with the person who I think has the best chance to do so. A president I can be proud of and passionate about.
But life will not be perfect. There is still work to be done. I think Obama would agree.
You think he doesn’t know that. If you have ever looked at his history, instead of just opening your fool mouth, you would know he has fought that since he got into politics.
The Chicago Sun-Times has ripped him every day since he got in.
You think running for Senator in Illinois did not come with attacks. Let me clue you in. Illinois is not a fully Dem state. In fact, when Harold Washington ran to be the first black mayor in Chicago, the Dems all became Republicans to stop him.
The man appeared at anti-war rallies when the vast majority of Americans were for the war. He knew it was not a popular move. Bet you would respect him if he was as stupid as Edwards and supported the war.
I really think the blogosphere is becoming an idiot conclave. Obama doesn’t care about your paranoia. As in his entire life, he follows his guts, unlike flip-flop Edwards.
just one problem: as was the case with the iraq war and the danger of appearing unpatriotic so as not to upset the WH and majority party, the media will hesitate so as not to upset the people– the overwhelming majority of people esp. college age kids (like my son) and the indies who have seen the media fuck up for the past 7 years.
It won’t SELL. And market share is everything.